Saed Hindash/The Star-LedgerCorey Chandler after the loss to Lehigh -- not happy.

Happy Thanksgiving, Rutgers fans. Hopefully today's turkey tastes better than the one the Scarlet Knights served up Wednesday night.
For the second game in a row, Fred Hill's team was stunned on its home court by a team it was expected to beat, this time losing to a determined Lehigh squad, 76-71, at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

It was the first time in 41 years that Lehigh had beaten Rutgers -- snapping an 18-game losing streak -- and the first time in 46 years that the Pennsylvania school had beaten Rutgers on the road. It also was the first time that Lehigh had ever beaten a Big East school.

Point guard Marquis Hall killed Rutgers with 28 points and a career-high 15 rebounds as Lehigh improved to 4-1. Rutgers fell to 3-2.

Hall, a 6-foot, 180-pound junior from Portland, Ore., was on the team that blew a 10-point lead against Rutgers the last time the teams played, on Dec. 22, 2006, and lost, 67-61, in Piscataway.

"My freshman year we came up here and we felt like we let one slip away," Hall said. "There were a lot of guys on this team that didn't want to allow that to happen this time."

"This was a wonderful win for our team and for our program," Lehigh coach Brett Reed said. "I think it's an important win in that it's a high-quality opponent."

Reed was probably just being polite. After back-to-back losses at home to St. Bonaventure and Lehigh, Rutgers can't necessarily claim to be a high-quality opponent.

The Mountain Hawks, who were 14-15 last season and 7-7 in the Patriot League, returned just about everyone from last season and were experienced and tough. They clearly were the better team Wednesday night, racing out to an 8-2 lead and holding that lead for most of the game until Rutgers finally grabbed its first lead, 59-57, on Corey Chandler's lucky-bounce 3-pointer with 7:32 remaining.

At that point it seemed as if Rutgers would finally take over and run away with things, but Lehigh would not allow it.

After Hall missed the front end of a one-and-one, Zahir Carrington (15 points, four rebounds, three blocks, two steals) made a three-point play with the aid of a Rutgers foul-line violation to put Lehigh back in front. Carrington added another layup to put the visitors back up by three, 62-59.

Rutgers came back on a free throw by Hamady Ndiaye (five points, eight rebounds, two blocks in 17 minutes) and a 3-pointer by Earl Pettis (seven points, one assist), and the teams traded leads for the next several possessions.

Hill said the crucial possession, though, came with Rutgers leading 65-64. The Scarlet Knights got a defensive stop, but Lehigh got three offensive rebounds before Rob Keefer (seven points in 12 minutes) finally scored a follow-up to put the visitors back ahead. A tip-in by Greg Echenique (10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks) gave RU its last lead, 69-68, with 2:03 left.

After that, a pair of free throws from Carrington, a jumper from Hall and two free throws from Hall with 34.8 seconds remaining gave Lehigh control of the game for good.

Rutgers was led by Chandler's 15 points, on 7-of-13 shooting, but the Knights were hurt by freshman guard Mike Rosario's 4-for-20 shooting night, even though Rosario did have 14 points and seven rebounds. But the one assist and three turnovers he recorded certainly hurt. Rutgers turned the ball over 12 times -- not bad, certainly. But Lehigh turned it over only eight times.

Hill did not make any players available for an interview after the game. Rutgers has done away with its postgame open locker-room policy, and instead brings selected players out for a postgame press conference. Hill said that because it was late and it was the night before Thanksgiving, he decided not to make the players stay for postgame interviews, and instead sent them home.